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News, notes, rumors, and gossip: Saturday, November 17, 2012

HERE NOW THE NEWS

EXCERPTS FROM EXTERNAL NEWS ARTICLES REGARDING THE NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS ARE POSTED UNDER THEIR SOURCES. MISCELLANEOUS SPORTS ARTICLES ARE POSTED UNDER THE "MISCELLANEOUS" SECTION AT THE END OF THE THREAD. LINKS FOR ALL LISTED SOURCES ARE INCLUDED TO ALLOW MEMBERS TO INDEPENDENTLY BROWSE AT THEIR LEISURE.

"Giants.com caught up with some of the rookies before the bye week and asked them about life in the NFL.Today, get to know second-round draft choice WRRueben Randle better in this exclusive Q&A.

Q: You passed the midway point of your rookie season. What have you learned about making it in the NFL so far? RANDLE: Adjustment-wise, just how complex things were, especially in this offense. I was used to a lot of simplified things [in college], just having a little route and maybe convert it to something else. But here you have three or four routes on one play. So I’m just adjusting to that, getting my mind focused on a lot of different things.

Q: Who is someone not on this team that you’d like to model your game after? RANDLE: I guess I’d say presently, somebody like Calvin Johnson

Q: Why? RANDLE: He’s a big bodied receiver that goes up and makes plays in double coverage and things like that. Just try to be dependable like him, have trust in his quarterback and just throw it up there and make a play.

Q: There are a lot of motivational signs around the practice facility. Do any stick out to you? RANDLE: I can’t think of the quote exactly, but coach always says something like, ‘If you continue to run in place, someone eventually passes you.’ So that kind of stuck with me a lot. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, someone is going to eventually pass you up. So you have to continue to push forward and get better.

Q: Who’s the most athletic opposing player you’ve seen in the NFL so far? RANDLE: Probably I’d have to go with RGIII [Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III]. He pretty much can put on a show and covert on third and fourth downs. That was pretty impressive to see him.

Q: What do you miss about college? RANDLE: Just the atmosphere around there was great. It’s a great fan base. I had great teammates. It was fun just going out there playing on Saturdays.

Q: What don’t you miss? RANDLE: What I don’t miss is those long three- or four-hour practices.

Excerpt: "By whatever measure you want to use, the New York Giants' defense has not been as good as it needs to be this season for the Giants to get back to the playoffs and try to defend their Super Bowl title. The pass rush hasn't been good enough. The run defense has been inconsistent. The secondary has been slip-shot. The tackling has been spotty.

"We definitely can be a good defense. All the makings are there. We're not consistent. We've shown at times that we can be a good defense, but we're not a consistent defense," defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said. "That's what we're striving for, to be a consistent defense. I think that if we can obviously pull together, which we will, and be more consistent with what we do, that we can finish strong.

"We haven't been consistent at either run-game or pressure-game. We haven't developed that consistency that you like to see at this point in the season."

Let's look at some of the areas where the Giants need improvement over the final six weeks in order to "finish strong."

Pass Rush

The Giants are tied for ninth in the league with 25 sacks, but there have been too many games this season like Sunday when the team's vaunted pass rush generated no pressure. The team's trio of star defensive ends have generated only 13.5 sacks -- Jason Pierre-Paul has 6.5, Osi Umenyiora four and Justin Tuck only three.

Fewell said he will continue to "tinker" with way to improve the rush.

"I'm always looking to tinker and however we can get more pressure with the people that are talented rushers," Fewell said. "We used Adrian Tracy a little bit yesterday [Sunday] in our package. We used (Mathias) Kiwanuka a little bit more in our package yesterday. As more guys get healthier and start coming to the fold, we'll do different things to be successful."

Valentine's View: Using Tracy and Kiwanuka more on the line to keep players fresh might help, and the return of Kenny Phillips to the secondary might make Fewell more comfortable sending extra rushers. The reality of the situation, though, is that if Tuck and Umenyiora aren't able to lift the level of their play the pass rush is going to continue to be hit-or-miss.

Run Defense

The Giants surrender 4.4 yards per running play, and only five teams in the league are worse. They have been gashed by LeSean McCoy of the Philadelphia Eagles, Trent Richardson of the Cleveland Browns, Isaac Redman of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Robert Morris of the Washington Redskins.

"It's always a concern when you give up those games. People are able to run the ball on you and we certainly are going to go back and look on tape and see what caused it and try to fix what caused it," said defensive line coach Robert Nunn.

Valentine's View: Injuries to Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard -- and now to Markus Kuhn, and the slow development of Marvin Austin, are part of the cause. The Giants have had games where they simply did not follow assignments well and contain the back side. They are also hurt, honestly, by the fact that despite the varied and interesting talents of the many linebackers they do have, there is no dynamic playmaker or imposing run-stuffer among the group. You also wonder how much Phillips' absence hurts the run defense.

Is there a solution? The personnel isn't going to change overnight. Perhaps Canty and Bernard will be healthier and have more impact following the bye. The linebackers are what they are at this point. The corners and safeties for the Giants are generally pretty good in run support. I guess in some ways this comes back to some of those veteran players like Tuck, Bernard, Canty, Kiwanuka and Michael Boley playing up to their reputations -- which, largely, has not been the case lately." Read more...

Excerpt: "The New York Giants are officially on their bye week for Week 11. So far this November they have followed their tradition of stinkin' it up and haven't won a game yet this month. After two ugly losses in a row to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals, maybe the bye week came at a good time for them. Who knows?

According to Blogging the bEast, the Giants' remaining schedule is among the NFL's toughest:via bloggingthebeast.com
We all saw it coming once the schedule broke earlier in the year, and the way these guys played in the last few weeks, it certainly doesn't give you a good feeling in your stomach. Basically, the division and/or playoff berth is likely going to come down to the wire for the second year in a row.Here is a look at the schedule once they return from their bye-week:" Read more...